Sometimes You Just Need Cake

...From a box. I know, I know. Shock! Horror! I even have a kitchen scale. But when pressed for time, or when the comfort factor of a cake seems like it might be zeroed out by the stresses of managing not just cake but the icing as well...well, I have to admit that I don't really have a problem with turning to the red box of the baking aisle. To a point.

I recently saw a fairy cake box mix to which one adds only water, and that's just gross. Recently, I've been striking a balance that includes experimenting with homemade frostings and fillings, while cheating a bit on the actual baking. I promise to post a cake from scratch soon, but these three cakes (one a rainy day activity, one an impromptu birthday cake, and the other as cupcakes for a dinner party) were no worse off for their processed beginnings because they were coated and layered with fresh ingredients.

D. and I decided a couple of weeks ago that, well, we just needed some cake. With her thesis deadlines looming, summer seeming to have taken a hiatus, and my...unjustified lethargy, a cake was in order. We trotted off to the shops and returned with dark chocolate, Nutella, and all the other accoutrements necessary for the cake and a basic buttercream.


The box's directions were more or less followed, however, one addition really made a difference. Where the measurements for water are called for, I left room for a single shot of espresso. Coffee and chocolate are a natural pair, and the cakes were just ever so slightly more rich in chocolate flavour thanks to the addition.

Now for the buttercream. This is no ordinary buttercream. In fact, I think if consumed in excess it could provoke instantaneous cardiac arrest. However, that is neither here nor there...
It ended up as something of a melange between chocolate ganache and buttercream. We began by melting 3oo grams of good quality dark chocolate over a double boiler. This was then added to the creamed butter and sugar...and then we added the Nutella (about 1/3 jar)...and the rest is history. Paula Deen, eat your heart out!

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D. exercising her piping skills
Cake No. 2

M. was on a flight from O'Hare to Heathrow as we spoke, staring at the communal kitchen table. It was time to kick into gear and get a birthday cake to end all birthday cakes together. A recent stop to Added Ingredients in Abingdon meant that I was wielding a proper piping bag and decorating tip set along with a Bialetti coffee maker for D. Needless to say, a couple shots from Mr. Bialetti got us going.

I remembered a cake I'd made out of Bon Appetit (June 2000)--a 'Mixed-Berry and White Chocolate Buttercream Cake', and decided it might work well again with the chocolate cake mix I had. Again, I added some espresso and baked according to the box directions. Bon Appetit's recipe makes an obscene amount of vanilla cake (there are 15 egg whites!), and this gateau had to be baked ASAP in a tiny oven.

For the buttercream, I followed Bon Appetit's recipe, but cut down on the quantities by approximately a third since my version had two layers instead of three:

8 ounces white chocolate, chopped
1/2 c. whipping cream
2 c. (4 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 c. egg whites (about 8)
2 1/4 c. sugar
2 1/2 tsp. grated orange peel
2 tsp. vanilla extract

We frosted with a crumb layer, topped the first layer chock-a-block with berries, and covered with the remaining buttercream, piping scalloped edges and and using seedless raspberry jam to decorate.

The third impromptu cake experiment was for a dinner party at E's, of Chef E. fame. I had just acquired some silicon cupcake forms, and I was eager to try them out. The end result was far more British 'fairy cake' in shape than American cupcake, but they tasted alright, just the same.

Half-way through baking, I studded each cake with a raspberry or two, and topped with a lemon Swiss meringue buttercream (in essence, the recipe above, minus the white chocolate and with the addition of 1 Tbs. lemon zest and a small squeeze of fresh lemon juice) and blackberries.

If that's not an end-of-summer cupcake, I don't know what is!